The suitability of a feed-in tariff for wind energy in New Zealand : a study based on stakeholders’ perspectives

Abstract

New Zealand (NZ) aims to expand the deployment of wind energy as one means to achieve 90% of electricity generation from renewables by 2025 and in addition to reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions. Due to electricity market regulations that inhibit market entry for independent developers, New Zealand's wind energy development has been limited to primarily large wind farms developed by a handful of electricity utilities. In contrast to many other countries, NZ lacks policy support for entry of smaller investors into the wind generation sector.

In order to gage the acceptability of a feed in tariff (FIT) for wind energy in New Zealand, a survey questionnaire (366 respondents) with land owning farmers and semi structured interviews with wind energy stakeholders was conducted. Although international literature suggests that a FIT would be the most suitable policy support scheme to accelerate wind energy deployment, this conclusion was not reached by many influential stakeholders in NZ. However, a majority of the surveyed farmers supported the introduction of a FIT for wind energy. The study also revealed that farmers' acceptance of wind energy in their local area increases with their awareness about climate change issues.